ACI maximum security locked down after threat found

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 5:11 PM

CRANSTON, R.I. — Prison officials locked maximum security inmates in their cells at the Adult Correctional Institutions for more than two hours on Thursday after an anonymous note containing a threat to a correctional officer was found.

By Thomas J. Morgan

CRANSTON, R.I. — Prison officials locked maximum security inmates in their cells at the Adult Correctional Institutions for more than two hours on Thursday after an anonymous note containing a threat to a correctional officer was found.

Spokeswoman Susan Lamkins of the Department of Corrections said a search of the individual cells by the ACI’s Special Investigations Unit turned up nothing, and that the writer of the note remained unknown. The lockdown lasted from noon to about 2:30 p.m., she said.

But, the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, the union that represents correctional officers, said in a news release that the inmate responsible — whom the organization did not name — has ties to “a notorious gang” and had “threatened to attack and kill a correctional officer.” The inmate also threatened to “retaliate against other correctional officers in the community,” the union said.

Richard Ferruccio, president of the union, said there were more than 150 incidents of inmate violence during January and February.